Solo backpacking to Montreal & Quebec city in winter

Prelude

"Winter is magic here!"... this punchline is usually being used to describe Quebec city in winter. I've been in this French speaking Canadian province to see the real magic in the winter of 2015 & spent some of the best days of my life there... it was like a dream, a real life movie, a fairy tale that I was cherishing from my childhood days...  :)

Winter wonderland of Quebec city...

The historical Quebec city was nominated as a "Heritage site" by UNESCO in 1985 & it's one of the oldest cities in North America. The actual meaning of Quebec is, "where the river narrows". With the establishment of French colonies in 1608, French has become the major language of this province. However from my personal experience, when I talk to people from France, they say that Quebec French is way different from theirs. But Quebec people say that they are close to original French, there are some mismatches of dialects only. I might be wrong, but this is what I've experienced from talking to some people. Anyway, in the province of Quebec, Montreal & Quebec city are two main cities, locating 250 Km apart from each other. Although the lifestyle & weather are pretty much similar in both of the cities, Quebec city turns into an winter wonderland in extreme cold. The city administration is so strong & efficient that in spite of experiencing 400 cm of snowfall in a year,  the regular city life doesn't get hampered. Rather after a snowstorm, the city turns into a real paradise & offers spectacular snowy beauties all around. In the beginning of 2015 I've spent a few days in Montreal & Quebec city, met some amazing people, gathered some unforgettable experiences that I will never forget in my life... trying to share my experiences with as many details as possible...

From last few group tours, hiking & expeditions, I was missing the ultimate freedom & the bohemian myself... & this time without a second thought, started my journey as a solo backpacker & entered into the amazing world of pure solo travelling. Left home to explore an unknown city for 8 days, about 950 Km away from where I am currently living. Packed minimum amount of garments that can be fitted in my laptop backpack, will reach there by 2-3 connecting buses & trains. I believe that to see an unknown city, the best way is to avail public transport & explore by walking. If you travel in an air conditioned car, you can never get close to the city life, & you can never "feel" the city... the local life will always be beyond your reach. I always try to interact with local people, taste street food, etc. so that I can feel to be a local. Many of you might not agree, but I believe that while solo travelling, one can come much closer to the place more quickly than the people who are in a group. When you are in a group, it's likely that you will be talking with your group members most of the time, & the chances of meeting strangers/local people will be less. Also, due to the freedom of being a solo traveler, you can explore places in more details, beyond the guide books & maps...

Snowy Quebec

For last few months, I did extensive "research" on the places I intended to travel. Some travel blogs, forums, etc. helped me a lot to chop out an efficient plan for 8 days. As I don't use a GPS phone, carried lot of Google map print-outs, & relied on local people to find the rest. Apart from that, I was carrying some cash, credit card, camera, some dry food, water bottle, chocolate, my diary & a novel ('Pilgrimage' by Paulo Coelho). After a tight packing in my small laptop backpack, I was set to start my journey towards the unknown. Left home in a cold noon of 1st January, 2015, will be travelling by overnight bus, to save time...

Waiting lounge of Greyhound bus station

2nd January 2015, Montreal: By changing two buses via Toronto & after an overnight journey, I've reached Montreal around 6.30 AM. The city is yet to wake up from a good night's sleep & it's pretty dark around. Couldn't sleep well in the bus last night, & I was tired. The most needed thing to get charged up, was a cup of coffee. Also as my phone doesn't have any network in this city, I can avail the free wi-fi from the cafeteria to call home. After getting a bit refreshed with the first sip of strong coffee, opened my diary & also made a tentative plan for the day. The check-in time of my hostel is 1 PM & I have substantial amount of time before that to explore the city. At first, once again went through the map to revise my present location & my destinations for today. One good thing is that the city is well connected by metro rail. After half an hour, the first rays of Sun enlightened the city. I could see a nice view of an edifice from the cafeteria window. To be a bit familiar with the neighborhood, I went outside for a walk, although it's about -15 degrees along with chilling wind.

An edifice of Montreal downtown

Most of the signboards on the shops & streets around are written in French. In the heart of the city where I am standing now, is called 'Bonaventure'. A busy area, full of skyscrapers all around. 

X-mas & new year decoration at via rail station in Montreal

After coming to the metro station I collected a map of the city, along with the metro route map. Got a 'day-pass' in $10 using which I can travel unlimited times in bus & metro till midnight. The whole city is connected by 4 metro line: green, orange, blue & yellow. Changing from one line to the other can be done at the junction stations. 

Instead of heading to busy & congested places, I started the day with visiting local life at 'little Italy district'. Almost 2 million people stay in this area, whose ancestors are Italian. In fact after Toronto, this is the largest Italian resident area of Canada. Very nice, calm, neat & clean area, most of the houses have spiral staircases from outside.

Neighborhood in little Italy district

Seems that there are many old traditional houses in this locality. I tried to talk with some people, but many of them (mainly old people) can't speak in English, their language is French. There is a big farmers' market in this are, which is closed today. Explored the area for an hour... 

Took a metro to go further East of the city where there is the famous Olympic stadium. Built in 1976 by French architects, it's open for tourists for exploration. The roof of the stadium can be opened & closed according to need. The 175 meter tall lean structure adjacent to the stadium is known as second highest lean structure in the world (after the tower of Pisa., although Pisa's tower was not build as a lean structure initially). There are provisions to climb to the top of the structure from where you can have a nice view of the city.

Olympic stadium

For tourism purpose, the authority has built adjacent botanical garden, bio-dome, etc. However, I skipped everything & were pleased by viewing the stadium from outside (it's expensive, $20 for each attraction. I didn't see any point to spend $20 just to see penguins in biodome! :P). 

By that time it was almost 1 PM, a good time for my check-in. If you are a solo traveller & wanna meet new people, hostel is the best place to stay in cheap price. hostels.com is a good website to search & book hostels all over the world. I had booked Auberge L'pero in Concordia area of the city. It's a busy area located at the heart of the town, full of restaurants, pubs, bus & metro station nearby. I struggled half an hour in finding the hostel address & finally a local guy helped me out. Actually the hostel doesn't have a big signboard outside, & I missed it several times (they later told me that one can recognize a hostel with a specific sign outside, which I didn't know). Anyway, after checking in I got a dorm bed in a shared room with 5 other people in the second floor. The hostel was pretty much good, clean, having well equipped kitchen, washing machine, common room, etc. After getting freshened up & putting my stuffs in the locker, I went out to have my late lunch. Filled my appetite with a 6" sub wrap & was set to go to my next destination: Mont Royal.  

Mont Royal is a small hill located at the centre of the town. Montreal is a rare place to have a hill in the midst of a city. I took bus no. 165 from Concordia area & requested the driver to notify me. It took 10 minutes to reach there. Hiked a few kilometers to climb at the top to get an amazing view of the city from "balcony" area. 

The last rays of the Sun on the edifices beside St. Lawrence river was more than of a picturesque beauty.

View of Montreal city from Mont Royal

The weather was so cold along with wind chill that my water bottle was frozen with a thick layer of ice. Many people were skiing, snow-tubing all around.

I stayed there for an hour & while climbing down, realized that I've lost my way.

A statue near Mont Royal

Ended up with descending to some other area from where the bus dropped me. Asked some people how can I go to the nearest metro station & they suggested me to take a bus. Many people don't understand English very well & that's why the bus driver misunderstood me & after half an hour he dropped me to a metro station at the other end of the city...

Although I was very tired after a sleepless night & whole day walking, didn't give up so early & decided to exploit my stay in the city. Evening is a good time to explore the lightened city life. The best way is to get off at each metro station & walk around. Following this rule I explored areas like Mcgill, Atwater & different places. Visited the Eaton center in Mcgill.

McGill Eaton center

The city was still in the phase of x-mas & new year decoration. By 8 PM I was really very tired & decided to go back to the hostel & called it a day. 

3rd January, 2015: Started the day with meeting some new people in the breakfast table of the hostel. It's so nice when you meet people from different parts of the world & realize that some of them share similar mentality like yours. Had a nice chat with a Russian guy, came to know some amazing facts of his city. I forgot the names of the two Chinese girls who came to Montreal directly from Hong Kong, they were very friendly & funny. We had some real good times together. 

I started the day with visiting a big open market in little Italy district. If you plan to travel Montreal, I strongly recommend to visit Jean Talon market once.

It's one of the best open fresh markets in Canada. Local people (farmers) sell fresh vegetables, fruits, meat & many other kind of groceries.

You can feel the local culture inside the market. I was talking with one of the shop owner & she was telling that they grow the vegetables by their own, which is about 45 minutes drive from the market. Also it's slightly cheaper than big supermarkets.

Apart from groceries, there are flower shops, restaurants & juice parlours too.

I had poutine in my lunch, it was so delicious (much better than the one I had last night from a restaurant in Mcgill!). 

The busy market reminded me the local market of my home-town in India... memories always rule us, no matter where we go...

Street performers inside the market

Rest of the day I had reserved for exploring old Montreal. The most traditional area of the city having European style cobblestone narrow streets, nicely decorated roadside cafe & heritage buildings... you will feel that you are inside the history!

Cobblestone streets & heritage buildings of old Montreal

The best way to explore old Montreal is to walk along St. Paul street.

Nicely decorated shops at the roadside

Visited Notre Dame church, which is worth spending only $5 as entry fee.

Notre Dame church area

The church was built in 1656 & has amazing architecture inside. You can also avail the guided tour of the cathedral. 

Inside Notre Dame church

The church area is the core of old Montreal & near to the metro station Place-D'Armes. Late afternoon is a good time to be there, the place is decorated very nicely by that time.

While walking by Place Jacques Cartier, I came across a kind of roadside food stall selling a sort of special ice cream. Being interested I peeped into & checked that it's a typical Montreal street food in winter.

Street food: maple ice cream

They put finely chopped ice in a big container & put a spoon of maple syrup on it. Then using a stick you can roll the ice with maple syrup as much as you want. It was so delicious! 

In chilling weather (almost -15 degrees) it was an amazing experience to taste maple ice cream in a roadside stall... couldn't resist taking a photo with maple ice cream  ;)

Explored the old port area, science museum, watch tower by walking. The old port was totally frozen & a few ships were there.

Old port

Visited Bonsecours market near old port. Nothing interesting to see there, but I liked exploring the shops (& to be inside warm building when it's freezing outside).

Bonsecours market

By that time it was evening & was pretty much cold outside, although the lights & decorations were just looking perfect in a snowy world. As I walked through the dock area, found many people are skating near the watch tower. The place was decorated nicely with colored lights.

After day's continuous walking, what I needed at that time was something warm to get charged up. And what else can be better than sipping a nice latte while writing diary in a nice cafe in old Montreal in a snowy evening? I will never forget the day in my life... 

A nice roadside restaurant/cafe in old Montreal

Literally I explored every nook & corner of old Montreal area & ended the day by having dinner with poutine & smoked meat (don't miss these two traditional Montreal food if you are there!). 

Delicious poutine & smoked meat: Montreal special

After going back to hostel at night, I met two Brazilian guys: Arthur & Ryan. We chatted for over an hour & they were very friendly. I was feeling very comfortable with them, as if we are old friends. Arthur offered a traditional Brazilian cigarette, made up of corn leaves. In extreme cold & incessant snowfall we went to the patio & smoked together while discussing life & culture of our countries. That was one of the most memorable moments of the whole trip...

It was about 11 PM & they were planning to go to the local pub & invited me too. Initially I was hesitating a bit, mainly because I was too tired. Then I realized that I should enjoy every little moments of life, otherwise may be after 10 years I will look back in this day & will regret of not enjoying the moment. Without a second thought, I joined the Brazilian guys with whom I became friends just a few hours ago. It was snowing excessively outside causing road blocks. Through this snowy roads we finally reached the bar by walking. The bar was full packed & we had to wait to get a table. Going to a pub is a nice choice to see the local culture & also the music. In fact I really liked the live songs there. Although I am not a party type person, I enjoyed the hangout with them.  Arthur got a 4 litre beer pitcher & we finished it pretty soon. Then we ordered another 4 litre one. I have never drunk so much beer in my life (I am not a big fan of beer actually). By 1.30 AM I realized that I should stop drinking & go back because next day is my check-out & I have to wake up early. Arthur & Ryan stayed & I came back around 2 AM. I had to be very careful to find out the hostel while coming, I didn't even carry the address of the hostel! 

January 4th: My check-out time from the hostel was 11  in the morning. After having breakfast I took a metro to reach Bonaventure. I will be travelling to Quebec city by train, Canadian Via rail for the first time.

Waiting in the boarding queue 

The railway station is adjacent to Bonaventure metro station. In fact, the huge underground market, restaurants, all have connections to the rail station. That was the first time I travelled by via rail & the experience was more than satisfying...

Inside the train

It took about 3 hours to reach Quebec city & it was a wonder ride. When the train was making it's way through the snow covered rail track & was crossing frozen rivers, the little snowy towns having tiny wooden snow covered houses with nice decoration on the Christmas trees, I was feeling exactly like I am inside the fairy tales that I read in my childhood. I am not putting any picture here because the pictures can't reflect the feelings of being in a wonderland & I don't want to compromise with my feelings :) Checked my emails from train wi-fi, & relaxed the whole train journey. Nevertheless to mention, it was one of the best train rides I've ever experienced in my life. The comfort, service & ambiance, everything was just perfect & a good value for money! Every time when I start solo journey to an unknown city, I feel so much excited & nostalgic. I never feel that I am an outsider in the place, I feel to be a local. Life is all about going beyond your comfort zone, to see the unseen, to experience the unknown. Didn't forget to write down the super amazing experience in my diary sitting beside the window & experiencing the winter wonderland of outside. Life is not so bad as I think... :)

When I reached Quebec city, it was about 4.30 PM & the weather was extremely bad with freezing rain & snow-storm. Just after I came outside the train station, the ice particles were blowing on my face so hard that I was feeling like hundreds of pins are being pinched on my face! All other people became busy with finding a taxi or some other vehicles. However, I had challenged with myself that I won't take a cab unless there is no other way... taking a cab means giving up in the battle ;) The first thing I had to do was to locate the place in the map & follow the way towards my hostel. After struggling a bit I found the way & started walking on knee deep snowy road & stormy weather. Due to the blizzard, some of the road signs were covered under a layer of snow & I had hard times to find my way. The most difficult job was to open the map, read the road names & match with the actual scene in constant snowfall. With the help of some local people I found the right direction & reached the hostel Auberge de la Paix by evening. 

In front of the hostel

Checked the weather, it's -20 degrees outside. However, there is no point in staying inside when you have come to visit a city. After getting freshened up & putting my stuffs in the locker, went out in stormy weather. Quebec city is really at it's best during extreme winter, like a picturesque beauty. On the very first day in the city, I tried to explore the neighbourhood of my present stay & located a few nearby planned destinations from the map. There were very few people in the streets & the ice removing trucks were working constantly. I hung around till 8 by exploring the upper town area. Most of the restaurants were getting closed by that time & I had to call it a day. Ended the day with sea-food pizza in dinner. 

Thai sea-food pizza

I was alone in a 6-bed hostel room, spent a little bit boring night on my first day.

January 5th: After a good night's sleep & having breakfast, I planned to cover some historical places on the first half of the day. One of the most attractions of Quebec city is the hotel Chateau Frontenac beside St. Lawrence river.

Hotel Chateau Frontenac

It looks like a big castle & offers a spectacular view from Terrasse Dufferin. The hotel has historical significance too. In 1943, Churchill & Roosevelt made a strategy of second world war in this hotel. The city beside St. Lawrence river in a snowy morning was looking amazing...

Picturesque Quebec city beside St. Lawrence river, Levis on the other side

The city consists of upper & lower town, separated by a few hundred historical staircases. The best way to explore the area is climbing the staircases. The amazing little shops, the decorations, & narrow cobblestone streets of lower town are like fairy tales, which can be best explored by walking. Many historical staircases have their own grandeur & solemnity. The one I liked the most, are the 'breakneck steps'. If you continue climbing down through the staircases, you will reach at the bank of St. Lawrence river. Another way to climb down to the lower town is to avail Funicular railway. 

The hotel Chateau Frontenac was looking beautiful with the dimmed sun in the background.

I continued walking & climbed 310 steps from Terrasse Dufferin to reach Governors' Promenade.

Climbing the staircase... towards heaven...

Explored the areas of historical battlefield & plains of Abraham. In -30 degrees it was so cold & windy that I couldn't even sense my lips & nose tip. Came out of the historic battlefield park & visited Citadelle de Quebec,  a historical fortification heritage site.

Citadelle de Quebec

The parliament building was also adjacent to Citadelle area.

Surprised to see a Gandhi statue there...

Struggling in extreme cold & constant walking burned lot of calories from my body & it was a good time for having lunch. Had a wrap from McDonald with coffee & went to the hostel once to grab an extra layer of woollen garment. Met another solo traveller in the hostel, Celene. She has left home without any specific destination & will be staying in this city for a few days. What else can be better than meeting other open minded & friendly solo traveler on your way? We planned rest of the trip jointly. 

The plan for the evening was ice hotel, called Hotel De-glace. I heard about this ice hotel many times & was feeling so excited to see it in reality! We took bus #801 to reach there in about 45 minutes. I intended to be there by evening so that the amazing lighting effects can be seen perfect. A hotel fully built up of transparent & opaque ice blocks having about 45 rooms...

Amazing ice hotel

You will never believe until you see it in person.

Drawing room

In every bedroom & drawing rooms all the tables, chairs, bed, sculptures are made up of transparent ice with extreme perfection along with amazing decoration of colored light!

Bar counter

I was talking to some people & they were saying that for this season, the hotel will be open from January to the end of March, & then it will be melted (depending on the weather).

Ice clock

There are specialized team of artists who work for several months to make it.

Conference table

Every year the hotel is built up on a new theme. When we were there, the hotel was half built (with about 20 rooms), & works were going on beside the hotel to expand it.

Even the letters are written using snow

Each year the hotel attracts about million of tourists from all over the world. This is no way less than the seven wonders of the world.

Sculptures

The quality of ice sculptures are so perfect that you can distinguish even every fingers & nails of a statue, all the letters of a clock, & the teeth of a horse! I was mesmerized with the work...

A statue

The bar counter of the hotel was so amazing. Along with the lighting effect & music, it felt like a night club. I will never forget the memory of drinking maple whiskey with cream (called L'Erabliere) in ice glass from the bar counter...

Ice glasses in which they serve drinks

It's been a lifetime experience.

Bar counter

Although most of the people go there just for visiting ($18 is the entry fee), there are provisions for overnight stay.

Ice bed!

They will provide special sleeping bags & you can spend a night inside the ice hotel (it will cost minimum $500 depending on the package).

Another bedroom

Couldn't resist myself to take a photo lying on ice bed...

& sitting on ice chair!

& with a statue...

:)

Each bedroom was decorated in a different style...

& the sculptures were different in every room...

Even the stylish chairs!

Nevertheless to mention, I spent one of the BEST evenings of my life in Hotel de-glace. And I should admit that with the company of Celene, it's been more amazing.

After coming back to the hostel at night, I was so surprised to meet the two Chinese girls whom I met in Montreal hostel! They had booked the same hostel in Quebec too & arrived just a few hours ago. Sometimes you can find so much comfort among strangers that you can never find with many of your close ones...

Eating in a restaurant everyday is costly (at least $10 for a good meal). I was trying to cut down my budget a bit & made the dinner by myself. From a nearby grocery store we got bread, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, & I had some cheese sheets. Made a few sandwiches in the hostel kitchen & saved some money (student life sucks in terms of money)! :P 

January 6th: A fine sunny morning with temperature about -20 degrees. The plan for the first half of the day was to visit Montmorency falls, about 12 Km East of the city beside St. Lawrence river. Taking the bus #800 we reached there (it was the last stop) in about 45 minutes. The bus journey indeed was very pleasant, through tiny neighbourhoods with nice little houses & streets. Seems that the people who live here, don't have any problem in their life...  :)

Montmorency falls

The falls was semi frozen at that time, & was a picture perfect beauty. The frozen area towards St. Lawrence river was looking like a postcard picture.

We explored the park area by walking, & came back by afternoon. 

Explored old Quebec city till evening by walking through the tiny streets with decorated shops on both side of the road.

Peeped into a nice book store. A book store nicely reflects the local culture of the place (exploring a local book store Celene's idea actually), & I liked being there although most of the books were in French & I didn't understand any of them. 

By late afternoon, reached at the bank of St. Lawrence river by climbing down the staircase from upper town. Got a ferry ticket to Levis in $7. The ferry ride through semi-frozen river was so nice! The night view of Quebec city from the boat, the sound caused by the friction of sheets of ice on the river, & standing on the deck of the boat in chilling weather... has been a rare experience. 

Quebec city skyline from the ferry

There is nothing much to see in Levis, explored the neighbourhood & came back to ferry after half an hour. My main reason to go to Levis was to experience the amazing ride.

We spent rest of the evening in the winter wonderland of lower town.

Decorations of lower town... feels like inside Christmas cards...

Constant snowfall, snowy white roads, tiny little Christmas houses, the decorations, the atmosphere... will make you feeling that you are walking through the Christmas cards. The quaint little well-lit shops, a bit of outdoor music & window shopping can refresh your mind instantly.  It's the real winter wonderland that I was dreaming from my childhood days. Walking through the historical area of Rue du Petit Champlain was a nostalgic experience...

Glimpse of Chateau Frontenac & funicular railway from Rue du Petit Champlain

Even if you don't buy anything, it feels so nice to explore the shops & galleries. 

Don't know if they keep this kind of decoration throughout the year, but probably Christmas & new year is the best season to go there.

Some of the wall paintings in lower town area were so lively that you can hardly differentiate from real scene!

Wall painting

The Chateau Frontenac hotel was looking fabulous at night.

Chateau Frontenac at night

And so the lower town beside the river...

Quebec & Levis at night

I never wanted to stop walking through the area...

Notre Dame church at night

The evening passed just like a dream.

In the evening, met a Brazilian couple & we had some nice chat together. They had cooked mussels (Brazilian style, with sauce & etc.) & offered me too. It was delicious! Had a nice dinner with mussels & self made noodles. That's why I like hostels, you can use the kitchen & can make your own food according to your need.

January 7th: I had check out time at 11 AM & had to catch train at 3 PM. In the meantime went to the old port area of the city. It was snowing so heavily that the visibility was extremely poor & the whole dock area was covered under a thick blanket of snow. The nearby Christmas market was closed too by that time. Visited the Notre Dame church at the end...

& by that time it was 1 PM. 

My time is almost over in this city. Ended up with spending half an hour with Celene in a nice cafe (Baguette Et Chocolat) & wrote down the last entry of my diary from Quebec city. Time to bid adieu to Quebec city & Celene, who has been a nice companion in last 2 days. In excessive snowfall I headed towards the train station & didn't look back again...

Via rail station in Quebec city... looking like a castle!

The train arrived Montreal on time.

Via rail station in Quebec

Spent the whole evening by exploring the underground market. When the whole city gets under thick layer of snow, this huge market serves the need of people in this city. The market consists of 12 square Km of area connecting major metro & bus stations. If you don't follow the map, there are chances of getting lost.

By overnight bus journey reached Toronto in the morning, & from there came back to my city by noon...

I have come back in my daily life, but the memories are still with me, starting from old Montreal cafe, moments with Arthur & Ryan, train journey to Quebec city, ice hotel, Celene, winter wonderland of old Quebec city, everything...

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The video of the whole trip can be seen here: 

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